Social science sites of the week

Here is the latest round up of new and interesting sites for social scientists.

Thailand elections

This week elections took place in Thailand - the first for 8 years. Get the background facts in this short guide from the Guardian
IFES also has an election guide which has an overview of the system
The Thailand Election Committee has details of the electoral laws and results. Some information has not been translated
ANFREL has assessed the conduct of the elections and the outcome.
The EU did not send a mission but its website has a statement and information on why it did not attend.
Human Rights Watch has concerns about structural flaws in the system

Newspaper coverage
Straits Times
New Mandala's coverage of Thailand's 2019 election was supported by the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. It includes a blog of events on election day

Khaosod live blog
Bankok Post

What is your favourite crisp? Get some academic research on all things crisp related!

A TV programme recently revealed a poll of the nation's favourite crisp. Look at this infographic from the BBC to see where your favourites score!

How many crisps do we eat?
Statista has some interesting data on crisps consumption and markets.It recorded that Walkers ranked first with its sales volume amounting to approximately 77 million kilograms of sold crisps in 2017.

The average household purchase per person per week of crisps and potato snacks in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2006 to 2016/17 remained fairly steady with an average of 55 grams of crisps per person per week consumed.
Data for this was taken from Family Food Surveys conducted by the UK government. Original datasets can be downloaded form the 1970s onwards tracking amount consumed and average household expenditure.These include data by region and socio economic position. Interestingly these show in the early 1970s average 20gs were consumed per person per week, rising to 69g in the mid 1990s and falling back since to 50 gs

Does advertising effect consumption?
Interesting analysis from NHS of a series of surveys
Sustain has produced publications which have focussed on the marketing practices of junk food manufacturers to school children
Another factor is increasing size of packets. This Cochrane review from the University of Cambridge found using data from 72 studies and over 6,700 participants, showed that people consume more food and non-alcoholic drink when offered bigger portions, bigger packaging, or bigger tableware rather than smaller sizes, The location of crisps in the shops also effects consumption. This 2018 study from the University of Cambridge found that if packets were located near the checkout people bought and ate more chocolate and crisps Locate more medical research on crisps, junk food consumption and health using PubMed and NHS evidence . This has abstracts of articles, plus NHS guidelines and analysis


Beyond Consultations Too- Ensuring women’s voices are heard
GAPS UK and a consortium of key development organisations have just launched a tool, to ensure womens voices are heard in consultations about peace and conflict reconstruction in fragile and conflict zones. Its aim is to provide guidelines and a methodology for self assessment of current processes and a framework for future improvement

Also released recently with a similar aim is the Oxfam Guide to Feminist influencing. It provides guidelines on how to conduct a gender analysis of a context and a situation whether for a campaign or advocacy.


A new Regional Gender Equality Monitor
A New index which focuses specifically on female disadvantage and achievement at a regional level within the European Union. It has two indices. the Female Disadvantage Index (FemDI) and the Female Achievement Index (FemAI). These both focus on 7 key areas 1) Work & Money, 2) Knowledge, 3) Time, 4) Power, 5) Health, 6) Safety, Security & Trust and 7) Quality of Life. The domains organise and aggregate over 30 individual indicators into the two summary measures of gender equality. The full 86 page report and its methodology can be downloaded from the website . It also has a good summary of the content and scope of other gender gap indexes.


Brazilian Presidential Transition (2018) Web Archive launched
This web archive has been curated by the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, member libraries of the Latin America Libraries of the Northeast Group. It has snapshots of ‘264 vulnerable websites’ - these are Brazilian government websites in the areas of human rights, the environment, LGBTQ issues, and culture, for the period following the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil on October 28, 2018, up to his inauguration on January 1, 2019.

Behavioral Science Around the World: Profiles of 10 Countries
Interesting new 163 page report from the World Bank which provides profiles of the state of behavioural science/ psychology research in 10 nations who have been selected as being particularly innovative: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Peru, Singapore, the U.S., and the UK. It includes coverage of how governments and policy makers are using the insights in formulating policy

Disabled Britain on Film Collection.
Free access to this small collection of films via the BFI Film Player . They include historic educational materials, plus insight into the lives of disabled people in the UK and works from disabled film makers and artists. Copyright information is displayed on the website.

Just for Mother's Day
Some useful links to key statistical data on motherhood

Where is the best place in the world to be a mother ?
Find out in the State of the World's Mothers report from Save the Children USA. It complied data on maternal and child health and prospects (economic/ educational/ political) and ranks 170 nations. In 2015 Norway came top. Download the full report to find out why

Health Data
Number of children - use the fertility data from the World Bank to find out in which countries mothers have the most children.
For information and data on maternal health, pregnancy and childbirth see the WHO website
Data indicates that a woman's education is a key factor in determining a child's survival.
from the Education Counts (EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO, 2011)A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past age 5. Working mothers.
Working mothers

he ILO produce women at work reports on trends. The 2016 report includes a section on the motherhood wage gap which is the decline in salary often experienced by mothers who return to work. This is further explored in this 2015 working paper.
Women spend 4.1 times more time in Asia and the Pacific in unpaid care work than men. According to the ILO report on Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work many of those are working mothers






Finally look for some


Classic advertising articles and recipes for Mother’s Day from Australian Woman’s Weekly. See the editorial on what it means to be a mother on page 18 of the 8th May issue from 1948.


And search for more examples